Letters: Cloud Debate Continues

Cloud Debate Continues"The Cloud vs. IT" (May 2011), by Doug Barney, was a great article. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where I stand on the issue yet. Because I work for HP Enterprise Services, I might stand to benefit from the cloud -- but you can never tell. My career has taken some new turns in the past six months, though, which I hope will leave me well-positioned no matter what.

About six months ago I asked my boss to approve training for ITIL Expert certification, which he did. I've already completed the foundation and two intermediate certifications. Then I decided to go back to school and finish my master's in IT Management, which I should complete by next summer. And just recently my boss told me he wants me to get trained in VMware. Though I'm certainly familiar with the concept of virtualization, I don't have any training or experience in that field, but I decided to go for broke and signed up for the Advanced Fast Track Performance and Troubleshooting course.

I'm running around with my hair on fire right now between my master's classes and trying to get up to speed on VMware vSphere 4.1 before the training. By next summer I plan to be as close to bulletproof -- or at least layoff-proof -- as you can get in IT these days. I guess we'll see.

Derrick Bourgeoisreceived via e-mail

Are we all going to have to move to a cloud we can't trust? That's what it sure sounds like. I guess that's why most big companies aren't really moving that much, from what I read.

These fads. Whatever happened to case tools and client/server and the Internet bubble and Web 2.0 and whatever the new one is (products, conferences)? The Internet was reborn after the bubble burst, but many of these fads end up just being replaced by some other big fad with newer technology. Like IBM being replaced by Microsoft, being replaced by Google/Apple. Like the latest big CRT monitors being replaced by smartphones. No more Hollerith cards needed. Meanwhile, real technology just keeps marching on as people work the bugs out.

Jeff CharlesNorth Royalton, Ohio

Tablets Take Off?I enjoyed the May 2011 Barney's Rubble column, "Tablet Myths." I think tablets will replace PCs when they run OSes that can accomplish the same tasks as PCs.

I'm specifically referring to recent tablet entries such as the Apple iPad. iOS is not identical to Mac OS X 10.6.3, Unix or any flavor of Linux. When users can install a PC OS on an iPad, then we'll see a dramatic shift to tablets. Until then, tablets and PCs will peacefully coexist. Additionally, processor performance is an issue with these smaller devices, as is storage capacity.

Richard J. Rothery Jr.Washington, D.C.

I'm dropping this note from my new Dell Duo. Both the laptop (under-powered in memory) and tablet have full Windows 7 features -- but it's very much my new experiment. I wanted a tablet but longed for the ease of typing when I need it. This fits the bill. With VPN, Windows Mesh and RDP I can connect to just about any of my clients and my home stuff.

I wish I had Dell's ear. A memory tweak to 4GB would make this very, very nice.

It's more cumbersome, convoluted and ridiculous than any other provider's. Selling Microsoft licensing is a hassle from start to finish.

Paul Brianreceived via e-mail

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